The Crying Tree Diary

The Crying Tree Diary is a cradle-to-grave diary of a battered child. It is the voice of this work that makes it so compelling. At first, the voice is inexperienced, the words raw and discordant like the beginning of a storm. The storm gathers; the voice becomes rhythmic in the daily telling of the main character's life. Finally, the voice emerges as glimmer on the horizon, and the reader is assured the storm will pass when Julie Anna looks beyond the clouds and prays for peace.